


a long time coming

by Rehearsal_Dweller



Series: Near Miss AU [18]
Category: Newsies!: the Musical - Fierstein/Menken
Genre: Gen, Modern AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-17
Updated: 2020-09-17
Packaged: 2021-03-07 22:47:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,182
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26515438
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rehearsal_Dweller/pseuds/Rehearsal_Dweller
Summary: Leah Jacobs-Kelly has an important conversation with Katherine Plumber.
Relationships: background David Jacobs/Jack Kelly, past Katherine Plumber/David Jacobs
Series: Near Miss AU [18]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1735408
Comments: 12
Kudos: 58





	a long time coming

**Author's Note:**

> I wasn't originally planning to post this on AO3, but I'm really happy with how it turned out, so I wanted to share it with those of you who follow the NMAU here but aren't on tumblr/don't follow me there!  
> This was written for the prompt "i need the scene between [leah] and katherine talking about What Happened like i need coffee in the morning." Enjoy! :)

_“_ Hey, Aunt Katie,” Leah tries as she walks, then shakes her head. “No, that sounds - no. How about, Hi, Kate.” She shakes her head again. “Ugh, this is dumb, I shouldn’t have done this, I -”

“Hey, Leah-beah!” Katherine calls, waving to Leah. She’s standing just out front of the coffee shop where they’re meeting up. Leah picked a coffee shop to bring this up with Katherine for two reasons - one, to force her to keep her cool, because she doesn’t want to cause a scene in public, and two, so that she can leave if she needs to.

“Hi, Katie!”

Leah lets Katherine hug her when she gets close enough, and they walk into the shop and order together. Katherine buys Leah her drink, which is nice. Katherine always pays when she brings the kids out.

Katherine doesn’t know why they’re here.

They talk about nothing particularly important while they wait for their drinks. Little things like what’s going on at work for Katherine and how Leah’s first semester of college is going. 

Before Leah knows it, though, they’ve got cups in hand and they choose a table in the corner of the room, with the comfy chairs.

“Kate, I have something I want to talk to you about,” Leah says carefully.

“Shoot, kiddo,” Katherine says. She takes a deep breath, the tiniest of frowns crossing her face. Leah figures she must have a pretty solid guess what Leah wants to talk about.

“I know that you’re my - I know you - gave birth to me,” Leah says, wrinkling her nose at how awkwardly the sentence comes out. She realised immediately after starting it that she didn’t actually want to call Katherine her _mother._ She’s not, really, anyway.

“I did,” replies Katherine. “You’ve known for a couple of years, right? Your dad told me when you asked about it.”

Leah nods. “I wanted to cool off about it a little before I talked to you.”

“Cool off?”

“Well, yeah,” says Leah. She shrugs. “I was upset. I _am_ upset. Wouldn’t you be?”

“I suppose -”

“Because, like, I’m fifteen years old and I realise that everybody I know has been keeping this secret from me, that somebody I _loved_ and _trusted_ was the first person ever in my entire life to - to -” Leah waves her hand around a few times, trying to find the right word. The one she settles on doesn’t quite feel like it, but she can’t think of a better one. “To _betray_ me.”

“Leah,” Katherine says softly. “I’m sorry.”

“Yeah,” Leah says, just a little bit bitter. “I’m sure you are.”

Katherine sighs. “I don’t blame you for being upset with me.”

“You shouldn’t,” says Leah.

“Your uncles - Les and Ben, I mean - have never forgiven me for it,” says Katherine. “There are days when I don’t know why your father did.”

“Well, _I_ don’t forgive you,” Leah says, crossing her arms. “Uncle Benny told me the reason he doesn’t like you, when he found out I knew, you know? He said _David can do what he likes with his own pain, but she hurt me, too_. That’s how I feel. Dad is whatever - if you and Dad have, like, made peace, fine. You hurt _me_ , Kate.”

“I’m sorry,” Katherine repeats. “Leah, you have to understand - I didn’t leave because I _wanted_ to leave you. I loved you so, so much. I still do.”

At eighteen, Leah is only three years younger than Katherine was when she was born. She wonders, distantly, if that means she should cut Kate a little bit of slack - she knows she wouldn’t be in the best decision making state if she were in that situation at her age - before remembering that Dad is eight months younger than Kate, and _he_ didn’t pick up and leave Leah behind.

“Spare me, Katie,” says Leah. “Dad’s told me the whole thing. I know. I know you were young, and I know it must’a felt like the end of the world. But we were your _family_ , and you just -”

Leah stops. She’s more emotional than she expected to be. There are tears starting to prickle at her eyes, and her breathing has gone a little uneven and shaky. She takes a slow breath, trying to steady herself. 

“You left us,” she finishes quietly. “We were your family and you left us.”

“I know,” Katherine says. She reaches over, like she’s going to sweep Leah’s hair away from her face like she’s done a million times, but then she stops. “I know, baby girl. I know it won’t make much difference to you, but I do regret it.” She sighs, and Leah realises there are tears in her eyes, too. “For what it’s worth, though, I count myself so lucky to have had the chance to still watch you grow up. You’ve become an incredible young woman, Leah Jacobs.”

“Kelly,” Leah corrects firmly. “Jacobs-Kelly.”

Katherine smiles. “Right. Leah Jacobs-Kelly. I’m so proud of you, Leah, I can’t even begin to say. And all of that was without me as your parent. I’m not trying to make excuses, but -”

“I didn’t need you,” Leah finishes. She crosses her arms over her chest. “ _I_ know. I’ve got, like, four whole parents. Plus Uncle Les and Uncle Benny and all. I just wanted to - to talk to you about it. To hear _you_ say it.”

“Well now you have,” says Katherine. “I’m sorry for leaving you behind, and I’m sorry we put off telling you for so long that you figured it out yourself.”

“Thank you.”

“I love you, Leah.”

Leah nods. And then, because it’s true and that’s what makes all this complicated, she says, “I love you, too, Aunt Kate.”

They part ways after that. Katherine doesn’t hug Leah goodbye, which Leah appreciates. When she gets back to her dorm, she video calls her dads.

“Hey, baby, what’s up?” Dad says when he answers. Papa leans over his shoulder so they’re both in frame.

“Hi, Daddy. Hi Papa,” Leah says, and now, finally, she lets herself cry.

“Leah, are you okay?” says Papa. “We can drive up -”

“No,” Leah interrupts. “No, you don’t have to come. I just - I wanted to see your faces.”

“Oh,” says Dad. “Did something happen?”

“I finally talked to Kate,” says Leah. She knows, from the faces they make and the way their eyes meet, that her dads know what she and Kate talked about. “She stopped by while she was in town for an article.”

“How did that go?” Dad asks tentatively.

Leah shrugs, scrubbing at her eyes with her free hand. “I love you, Dad.”

“Ah,” says Dad. “I love you, too, Bean.”

“Papa?” Leah says.

“Yeah, Bee?”

“I love you,” she says, sniffling. “Thanks for choosing us.”

“Best choice I ever made,” says Papa. “I love you so much, Leah.”

Leah’s still feeling a little raw and drained when she hangs up, but it’s better. Dealing with Katherine might be a complicated, messy minefield, but at the end of the day it doesn’t matter. Her family is better off how it is.


End file.
